The state Department of Transportation has emptied several homeless encampments near busy, state-controlled roads in Anchorage over the past two weeks. In a statement, the state cited “significant risks to public safety,” including a recent increase in fatal accidents between pedestrians and vehiclesand the opening by the city of winter shelters as reasons for removing the camps.

This is the first time in recent years that the department has moved homeless campers out of state rights-of-way in Anchorage, according to Transportation Department spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy. Although homeless residents have camped on some Department of Transportation rights-of-way before, “it hasn’t been on this scale,” she said.

“This is the first time I’m aware that we have camps, inside controlled access facilities, like the New Seward Highway in particular – and people right on the road,” McCarthy said.

Crews dismantled an encampment of about 20 to 30 shelters set up between the northbound on-ramp and Alaska Community College at the new Seward Highway and Tudor Road, according to the department.

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At the intersection of Seward Highway and 36th Avenue, the state emptied approximately 20 to 25 shelters located on four sides of the intersection.

The department pointed to a fatal crash near the same intersection on Sept. 20 that killed 79-year-old Ambrose Aguchak. The location experienced “significant foot traffic due to nearby encampments,” the state Department of Transportation said in the release.

“This tragic incident highlighted the significant risks associated with crosswalks outside of marked and unmarked crosswalks and in violation” of state law, the release said. “The increase in pedestrian fatalities in Anchorage this year has increased the urgency for immediate intervention to mitigate these risks.”

Other locations were Minnesota Drive and International Airport Road, where a few shelters had been set up “within the Cloverleaf Interchange” but were no longer occupied; along Benson Boulevard, between Spenard Road and Arctic Boulevard; and an unoccupied camp on Seward Highway under the Campbell Creek Bridge, the department said.

The department will remove trees from the Seward and Tudor areas as well as International and Minnesota, according to McCarthy, and has removed trees from Seward and 36th Avenue.

“We must prioritize measures to prevent further accidents and reduce risks for people living near the highway or trying to cross it,” the ministry said.

Regardless of the state, according to Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s office, the municipality has cleared a total of 12 encampments since July 1.

McCarthy said in the emailed statement The department coordinates with the municipality to enforce the state’s right-of-way laws and has “worked throughout the summer to inform” campers. The decision to eliminate them came from DOT management, and the department began work after the Anchorage Assembly approved last month a contract for 200 winter shelter beds.

Work with local service organizations, Anchorage Police Department HOPE Team helped move four people from the Tudor and Seward encampment to drug treatment and six people to a shelter, according to APD spokeswoman Shelly Wozniak.

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